GTX 1080 vs Arc B570: Which Graphics Card Should You Buy?

The Arc B570 is the better card to buy for modern games: it is substantially faster in current DirectX 12 titles, adds ray tracing and XeSS 2 with frame generation, and has 10 GB of VRAM. The GTX 1080 is only worth choosing if you get one nearly free, your library is mostly older DirectX 11 games, or your PC lacks Resizable BAR support, which the Arc card effectively requires.

A Retired Legend Against a Budget Newcomer

The GTX 1080 launched in May 2016 at $599 and defined high-end gaming for years. The Arc B570 arrived in January 2025 at $219 as Intel’s entry Battlemage card. Nearly nine years separate them, and the gap shows less in raw specs than in features: the Pascal card has no ray tracing hardware, no Tensor cores and no modern upscaling support beyond FSR and XeSS fallback modes.

Head-to-Head Specs

Real-Game Performance

Modern DirectX 12 and Vulkan games

In current titles the Arc B570 is clearly ahead. HowManyFPS’ average across more than 100 games puts it about 63 percent faster, and other game-based data, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5 at 1080p, shows the B570 roughly doubling the GTX 1080’s frame rate in some engines. Synthetic 3DMark results also favor the B570 by around 65 percent. A reasonable expectation is that the B570 runs modern games roughly 50 percent or more faster at 1080p, with ranges varying widely by title.

For a sense of scale, where a GTX 1080 may manage around 30 to 50 FPS at 1080p medium-to-high in a recent AAA game, the B570 often lands around 50 to 90 FPS. These figures shift with settings, CPU and driver version.

Older games are a different story

Some aggregators that lean on synthetic tests such as PassMark, or on older DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 workloads, actually place the GTX 1080 slightly ahead. That reflects a known Arc trait: Intel’s drivers have improved a lot, but older APIs historically run less efficiently than on NVIDIA or AMD hardware. If most of your playtime is in older titles, the B570’s advantage shrinks and occasionally reverses.

Ray tracing and modern feature requirements

The B570 supports hardware ray tracing and the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set. The GTX 1080 does not. That matters beyond eye candy: some recent games such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle require RT-capable hardware and will not run on Pascal.

Upscaling, Frame Generation and Driver Support

• Arc B570: supports XeSS 2, including XMX-accelerated Super Resolution, XeSS Frame Generation and Xe Low Latency in supported games. It can also use FSR in games that offer it.
• GTX 1080: cannot use DLSS at all because it lacks Tensor cores. It can use FSR 3.x and the generic XeSS mode, which helps but with lower image quality than hardware-accelerated upscalers.

Driver support is a growing concern for Pascal. NVIDIA ended new Game Ready driver releases for Maxwell, Pascal and Volta GPUs after its 580-series branch, with security updates continuing for a limited period. New games will not be optimized for the GTX 1080 going forward. Intel, by contrast, is actively updating Arc drivers.

The Platform Catch: Resizable BAR and PCIe

This is the most important practical point for anyone upgrading an older PC. Intel recommends Resizable BAR for Arc cards, and performance can drop sharply without it. ReBAR generally requires an Intel 10th-gen or newer, or AMD Ryzen 3000 or newer platform with the setting enabled in BIOS, although some older boards gained support via updates.

The B570 also uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 link. In a PCIe 3.0 system it runs at 3.0 x8, which halves the available bus bandwidth compared with 4.0 and can cost performance when the 10 GB buffer fills. A typical GTX 1080 owner with a 2016 to 2018 era CPU should check both of these before buying, because the B570 may underperform in that system.

Value and Cost per Frame

Treat the GTX 1080 as 100 and the Arc B570 as about 160, based on the game-average gaps reported above:

• At launch, the GTX 1080 cost $599, about $5.99 per performance point. The B570 at $219 costs about $1.37 per point.
• Used, a GTX 1080 usually sells for around $70 to $110. At $90 it costs about $0.90 per point, the cheapest frames available, but with no warranty, no RT support and ending driver support.

For someone who already owns a GTX 1080, the upgrade question becomes: is roughly 60 percent more performance, 2 GB more VRAM and modern features worth about $219 minus the resale value of the old card? For a modern system, that net cost of roughly $120 to $150 is a strong deal.

Power Supply and Fit

Formula: GPU TDP + CPU gaming power + about 150 W headroom.

• GTX 1080: 180 W + about 100 W for an older quad- or six-core CPU + 150 W = roughly 430 W. A quality 500 W unit is fine.
• Arc B570: 150 W + about 120 W + 150 W = roughly 420 W. A good 450 W to 550 W supply works.

Both use a single 8-pin connector and are similar in length, 267 mm versus 272 mm for the reference figures, so a case that fits one usually fits the other. Partner B570 models vary in length and cooler height. Monitor connections differ: the B570 drops DVI, so owners of older DVI-only monitors need an adapter.

How Much VRAM Do You Need?

The B570’s 10 GB is an underrated advantage over the GTX 1080’s 8 GB. As a rough guide for current games:

• 1080p, medium to high textures: 6 to 8 GB is usually enough, so both cards cope, although the GTX 1080 is near its limit in newer releases.
• 1080p, high to ultra textures in recent AAA games: 8 GB is often tight, and 10 GB gives noticeably smoother frame pacing.
• 1440p: 10 GB is workable with upscaling and sensible texture settings; 8 GB often forces texture reductions.

Running out of VRAM rarely shows as a simple lower average. It shows up as stutter and textures loading late, which is far more distracting. The extra 2 GB on the B570, combined with its faster GDDR6, gives it a more consistent experience in exactly the games where the GTX 1080 now struggles.

Buying a Used GTX 1080

Most GTX 1080 cards on the market are seven or more years old. Check that fans spin smoothly, look for dust buildup and dried thermal paste symptoms such as high temperatures under load, and run a short stress test before paying. Founders Edition blower cards run louder than partner open-air designs.

Pick the Right Card

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Arc B570 faster than the GTX 1080?

In modern DirectX 12 and Vulkan games, yes, by roughly 50 percent or more based on game-average data. In some older DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 titles the gap narrows, and synthetic tests such as PassMark can even favor the GTX 1080.

Does the Arc B570 need Resizable BAR?

Intel strongly recommends it, and performance can drop significantly without it. Check that your motherboard and CPU support ReBAR and that it is enabled in BIOS before buying. Most platforms from around 2019 onward support it.

Does the GTX 1080 still get driver updates?

NVIDIA ended new Game Ready drivers for Pascal after the 580-series branch. Security updates continue for a limited time, but new games will not receive optimizations for the GTX 1080.

Can the GTX 1080 use DLSS?

No. DLSS needs Tensor cores, which Pascal lacks. The GTX 1080 can use FSR and the generic version of XeSS in games that support them.

Is upgrading from a GTX 1080 to an Arc B570 worth it?

For a ReBAR-capable system, yes. You gain substantially more performance in modern games, ray tracing, XeSS 2 and active driver support. If budget allows, the Arc B580 or RTX 5060 offers an even bigger step.